Your email marketing campaign will only be as good as the list you’ve compiled. When you first start out (and even after you have a good list), it can seem challenging to grow your sign-ups, however you can’t give up. The better, and bigger, your list is, the more successful your business will be.
Are you struggling to build your email marketing list – whether you’re just starting out or your list has stalled?
Here are some tips to help:
1. Start Close to Home
When you first start out, ask your friends, family, and even colleagues to get your list started. It can be overwhelming to start an email list with no subscribers, so don’t be afraid to ask your friends and family members to sign-up.
2. Bring in Current Clients
Make sure your current clients can sign-up in your office. Most of your current clients will likely want to be on your mailing list, and by making it easy to sign-up, they’ll definitely do so.
For example, you could put a sign-up sheet on your front desk where they can easily choose to be included. You can then manually enter them into your list
3. Create a Mobile Sign-Up Option
You also need to make it easy as possible for people to sign-up using their smartphone, or another mobile device. Though this sounds potentially difficult, it really isn’t – in fact, Constant Contact has a Text-to-Join tool which makes it really easy. All you need to do is make a sign to hang up and/or post your code online, so people can just send a text message to easily join your list.
4. Put a CTA on Social
Add call-to-action buttons on your social media sites as another way help your followers to easily join your list.
Facebook has an app called Join My Mailing List which enables people to join your mailing list in just one-click, and there are similar tools and buttons available for other platforms.
5. Offer Sign-Up Incentives
One of the best ways to get new subscribers is by offering something for free. People love to sign-up for free things – for example, you might offer a free course that pertains to your business. Do you have a blog post that you love and want everyone to read? Offer it as a free gift for subscribing.
You could also run a contest. People love contests, especially if there’s a good prize to be won. You may want to give away a free consultation (to help to bring in new clients). Many businesses also give away books, gift cards, and other things to get people excited.
It’s important to remember the better your prize is, the more people will sign up (and quickly).
6. Ask for Shares
You can also ask others to share your content, and include a way to join your email list. If you’re giving your subscribers good information, they’ll be more likely to share it on social media, or even forward it on to their friends.
Make sure you include a link in each of your emails to allow new people to easily sign-up.
7. Include Valuable Content
This probably goes without saying, but the more helpful your emails are, the more likely that people will want to sign up. Make sure you keep your audience in mind, and segment them where possible to make each email send out even more relevant.
And again, any time you correspond with people through email, make sure there’s a link where they can join your mailing list quickly and easily.
These are all relatively simple tips, but they’re often overlooked, and they can have a big impact in terms fo helping to build momentum and expand your mailing list.
